The sport of archery is an ancient pastime in which an archery bow is used to project arrows at selected targets. An archer's success is based, in large part, upon the ability to master three main tasks: accurately judging distances, keeping a bow steady during a given shot, and managing muscle fatigue.
Archers consider target distance when assessing the likely affects of gravity and drag while aiming at a target. Because arrows tend to lose altitude during flight, many archers fire arrows along an arced path. Proper assessment of target distances helps an archer calculate the arc required to deliver an arrow to a chosen target.
Similarly, an archer must be able to keep a bow steady while firing an arrow. If the bow wavers during a shot, the accuracy of the shot will be affected. Some archers find bow placement to be so critical that they time shots in deference to the cadence of their breathing.
Since bow positioning is a critical part of an archer's success, dexterity loss as a result of muscle fatigue can be a source of poor results. Archers typically use the same group of muscles from shot to shot. As a result, the muscles used may tire quickly. Exposure to excess vibration may cause the relevant muscles to tire at an accelerated rate, increasing the likelihood of injury and reducing the likelihood for accuracy.
Distance-judging ability, bow steadying capacity, and resistance to muscle fatigue may be developed through practice and rigorous training. However, as with many sports, specialized equipment has been developed to help archers with various aspects of the sport. For example, sighting devices help many archers determine the correct arrow path for targets of varying distance. Additionally, braces and balancing bars have been created to help archers steady a bow during a given shot. Furthermore, damping devices attempt to ease fatigue by reducing the amount of vibration transmitted to muscles of bow-supporting hands and arms.
Although the known equipment provides a certain amount of assistance, its use often brings liabilities. Damping devices, in particular, may cause more trouble than they alleviate. Known damping devices typically attempt to absorb vibration before it is transferred to an archer's muscles. The success of the damping device is a function of vibration absorbing qualities of the device.
Early damping devices attached rigid masses to the body of an archery bow, with the extra mass absorbing a portion of the vibration produced when an arrow was fired. However, the success of these rigid mass dampers relied upon mass size, with larger masses absorbing more vibration. Unfortunately, past a certain point, extra mass is cumbersome. Bows equipped with too-large masses ironically create muscle fatigue not from vibration transmittal, but from increased weight.
Other known damping devices seek to absorb vibrations through use of fluids or elastomers. Although these types of devices provide increased damping capacity with only moderate weight increases, their performance is largely environment-dependent. The performance properties of known damping devices varies with temperature. As a result, known damping devices behave one way in cold weather and differently in hot weather. In cold weather, the devices become rigid and, due to their relatively-low mass designs, exhibit low vibration absorbing capacities. In hot weather, these devices become increasingly lossy and, again, display a diminished ability to absorb vibration. Furthermore, while the damping capacity of known damping devices of this type is acceptable at moderate temperatures, the unpredictable nature of these devices makes them difficult to use. Hydraulic devices, for example, operate differently in hot weather than in cold weather.
Thus, what is needed is a damped archery bow stabilizer that includes advantages of the known devices, while addressing the shortcomings they exhibit. The stabilizer should make a bow comfortable and accurate to use. The stabilizer should also exhibit a high vibration damping capacity without unduly increasing the weight of the bow. The stabilizer should also provide consistent performance across a wide range of temperatures without requiring adjustment or compensation before use.